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Category: Empty Nest

Having dropped two freshmen at their respective colleges this week, we are nursing the exit wounds!

Of course we are delighted. This is how it is supposed to be. They are excited. They were happy when we left them. Thrilled to be in their new home. They are in great places with so much opportunity. The next four years promises so much. They will grow in ways we can try to imagine based on what we know of them but they will likely surprise us.

It was time for them to go. In fact they left a while ago. The curfew dissolved. As long as they were safe and – most importantly – they didn’t wake us on their return …..Still accountable but less and less in control. It was time.

But then the conversations….much more interesting: a glimpse of what is to come. Core issues, addressed as between adults – an honest exchange of experience and insights, with perhaps a residue of parental concern about too much frankness.

Of course we will miss them, but only as we mourn the passing of the caterpillar. We await the butterfly.

And now we must fill the void – constructively as they told us in the parents’ orientation. After 17 years, the house is empty, and tidy and quiet. We don’t worry if they are coming home at night. Two for dinner. Every night. Exciting. Not the same as pre-kids. Exciting – really.